The Days That Never Were
by V.Evergreen
Summary: Set on board the Valiant in the the Year that never Was.The Master tires of killing Jack and decides to see how long it will take to completely break him down to nothing.Charater death, should probably be a cross over fic but is more Torchwood than DW.
1. Toshiko Sato

It was so easy for the days to blur into one when none of them held any distinction from the next. What should have been horrific soon turned into routine and what should have been heartbreaking just became another scar among countless others. But some days were different. Some of the days he wished would fade into the monotone of his memories were the only ones he could recall. Some days just stood out.

~o~o~o~

One of the many things the Jack hated the most about his life aboard the Valiant was how little he knew of what was happening beneath him, of how little he knew about what was happening to his team in the dreadful place that Earth had become. _His team._ He should have been the one protecting them but all he could do was to hope and pray to whatever deity would have him that they were surviving. He knew that they wouldn't be living, for that was too much to ask for and it was damn near impossible under the circumstances but for now all he hoped for was that they survived.

Jack soon lost count of the days he spent being tortured and killed because in a sad and roundabout fashion dying had became routine to him, as had the unimaginable amounts of pain the Master managed to inflict upon him every time he killed him.

It was all Jack could do to hold on to his sanity, but he did. Barely.

Every time he saw the master stride towards him, often with some sickening implement in his hands, he made sure that his once easy smile was firmly fixed upon his face and a suave comment was at the ready. Each time he did this he saw the Master slowly lose his composure. It slipped ever so slightly whenever he made an innuendo or laughed at his joke because no one else would. To him, it felt like he was siphoning away some of his own torment and passing it over to his captor and in doing so he managed to cling to his state of mind, even if by only his fingertips.

This all quickly changed after his twenty third death at the Master's hands. He felt the bullet rip into his abdomen and lodge there and when his head began to loll forward onto his chest he saw the red stain of his blood steadily soaking through his shirt. After several pain filled minutes Jack felt the familiar sensation of his mind slipping away into the abyss he sensed the life leave his body as he slumped forward as much as him chains would allow as his blood continued to drip onto the floor providing the only sound within the whole room.

~o~o~o~

While he awaited for his prisoner to awake from the dead the Master stood impassively over his body, his face showed none of his crazed glee that usually lit up his features as he watched Jack be dragged forcibly back into the land of the living and his eyes didn't betray his manic energy that seemed emanated from them whenever he found a particularly inventive way to slaughter the abomination of a fixed point that so often stood in front of him.

No, he mused silently, his game had become boring and something needed to change. He had established that he could physically break the so called man in front of him on a whim and no matter what he did Jack would always come back but he had so far not even tested his mental strength. A slight smile quirked at the edge mouth when he came up with the solution. It was time to see just how strong Captain Jack Harkness really was.

~o~o~o~

Jack was surprised when the Master arrived the next day with two armed guards; usually he was alone, but quickly schooled his expression into a smile that had once been charming. Just as he opened his mouth to comment on the extra company the Master beat him to it and in a bored voice said to the guard who flanked his left, "Shoot him." The last thing that Jack felt was the terribly familiar feel of bullets peppering his body.

The first thing that Jack was conscious of was that he was no longer bound by his chains. In fact, as he opened his eyes and took stock of himself discreetly he noticed that not only was he liberated but he was also not where he had come to think of as his cell.

From what he could see and feel he was laying in a heap upon a polished hardwood floor, which was dappled in the early mourning sunlight, a sight that he never thought he'd see again.

As he sat up slowly, trying not to draw attention to himself (an entirely new experience for him) he came to the conclusion with slight trepidation that he was on the main control room floor. The floor where he had first been captured and where he had watched Martha disappear from all the while wishing he could go with her.

~o~o~o~

Seeing Jack slowly rise from his position of lying on the floor the Master's face broke into a twisted smile of anticipation, pausing only to grab the handles of the Doctor's wheelchair he strode into Jack's eye line and enjoyed the range of emotions that flickered across his face.

First he saw undisguised loathing from when Jack first noticed him, next came longing, guilt and pity all rolled into one when his eye's alighted on the Doctor. Although the Master couldn't see the Doctor's face from standing behind him he saw the man's shoulders stiffen as he took in his friend struggling on the floor at his feet.

Despite all the strong emotions that played out across the man's face the dominant one seemed to be confusion. A natural emotion he supposed and was only fair that he enlighten the poor man before him. Feeling a smile break on his face the Master stepped forward to do so.

"Well Captain," he said in a genial voice that he knew would make the other man hate him just that little bit more, "I have a problem. My problem is that I seem to have grown, well, _bored_ of killing you, and what is the point of having a plaything if it's only going to bore you?"

At this point he paused to shoot a look over his shoulder at the shoulder at the Doctor. The other time lord's eyes were closed and his face held such a broken and painful expression that the Master knew in a instant that the Doctor had figured out his plan. Turning back to Jack on the floor he continued,

"We all know you're not going to die, so let's see how much we can make you wish you could." He said with malice colouring his voice, turning to the doors on the other side of the room he issued a single command "Bring her in!"

~o~o~o~

All of the bravado that Jack had been trying to gather from the depths of his mind quickly fade when he saw three people walk through the door towards him.

Two were armed guards that the ship seemed to be crawling with but the third was obviously not. The person between them was clearly a woman and a petite one at that and despite the bag that covered her head Jack knew who it was and the truth almost broke his heart.

She was roughly brought level to the Master and although she struggled it was a feeble attempt that required little effort to restrain her. When she was standing directly in front of the Master he threw Jack a flicker of a smug smile before returning his attention to the person in front of him.

"My, my! What have we got here?" Came the mocking voice that had taunted Jack for the last three weeks. With slow and deliberate movements the Master drew his hand upward to head height and pausing only to savour the moment he whipped the bag off of the woman's head and threw her to the ground in Jack's direction.

Jack broke her fall the best he could and for the first time in what seemed like a life time he found himself looking into the face of Toshiko Sato.

~o~o~o~

The Master watched in satisfaction as he watched the woman, Toshiko's eyes become wide as she took in Jack. His plan seemed to be coming together perfectly and it was certainly more interesting than killing the man over and over again. He was just about to step forward and initiate the second part of his plan when he felt a weak tugging at his sleeve. Looking down he saw the Doctor looking up at him with a inscrutable expression upon his face.

"Don't do this." What should have been a powerful command came out as a broken plea and the Master was pleased to note that he was right to bring the Doctor into this, this affected _both_ of them.

But seeing as he was going to go though with his plan anyway he saw fit to deign the Doctor with an answer,

"Why shouldn't I?"

The question came out as a hiss but the Doctor never broke eye contact with the Master as he pointedly looked over at the pair on the floor. Toshiko had gotten over he initial shock of seeing Jack for the first time since he left and had now grabbed him and was sobbing unashamedly into his chest while he clung to her just as tightly and tried to hold back his own tears even as he rocked her backwards and forwards trying to find empty words of comfort.

The Master took in the scene with an air of general amusement before deciding that the time was right to act. Striding over to the pair he crouched down to be on their eye level. He ignored the outright hatred he could feel that radiated off of Jack in waves and in stead focussed in on Toshiko. He reached out a hand and moved as if to caress her cheek, smiling inwardly when she cringed away.

"Oh my dear Toshiko, the things I have planned for you." He crooned to her softly. With a suddenness that surprised both her and Jack the Master gripped both of her arms and yanked her body upright and made her stand. Jack made a move as if to stand alongside her but was made still by the ominous sound of the safety clicking off the guns of the soldiers behind him.

The Master continued regardless "Ah Tosh, May I call you Tosh? Well I was just going to explain to Jack here how this is going to work." He paused to look over and address Jack directly, " You see, I was beginning to tire of our time together so I decided to shake things up a little bit. And that's when I found you!" He said in a light voice as he turned back to Tosh, " All alone in the world and a member of the prestigious Torchwood three! How could I possibly resist bringing you here? He finished softly.

"Where are the others?" Jack blurted out quickly before the Master could interrupt him. He looked at Tosh with pleading eyes willing her to understand that he needed to know what had happened to his team.

With a quick look at the Master who showed no signs of stopping their conversation and was instead watching over them with an air of condescending amusement Tosh spoke " We got a anonymous tip off to the Himalayas a few days after you left and Gwen wanted to check it out. We got about half way there before we realized it was a diversion," she paused in her speech only to throw filthy look at the Master

"but when we started to come back they started to close all the borders. We had to make most of journey at night. And well, last night we started to walk again when the toglaphane," Tosh was interrupted by a sound of distaste from the Doctor which seemed to amuse the Master to no end before she continued with her story "came after us but I just wasn't fast enough. I got separated from the others."

Tosh finished regaling her story to Jack just as the Master's face broke out into a fresh grin,

"Don't you see?" He said, "Your sorry little team is done for! I know where I can find them and when I do, I'll bring them here to see you, so I can kill them and you can know that it was all your fault."

The Master said lowering his voice and stalking slowly towards Jack as he finished talking. The image in Jack's mind was terrible and the worst thing of it was that was no doubt in Jack's mind that the Master would do it, even if only for his own demented pleasure.

While he was for the most part too wrapped up in his own mind to notice the Master's gloating little speech he did notice one thing. While his captor tried to goad a response out of him by saying how he would personally kill every member of torchwood three he had angled his body away from Tosh to focus on Jack. He completely missed the fact that when he talked about killing her team mates Toshiko Sato's face had become completely blank of any emotion and it was only when he began to blame their impending death's on Jack that she finally cracked.

For a split second Jack saw pure rage flit across Tosh's delicate features; it was an emotion that he had never seen her display before and it didn't seem to sit well on her face.

Jack continued to stare at her in astonishment as she crouched and launched herself at the Master, punching and kicking every inch of him that she could find, trying to wrap her small hands around his throat to no avail but continuing to try to beat him into submission.

It took both of the guards that had escorted her here to pull her off of him and when they did she struggled once more before going limp in their arms. The Master walked over to her and stood so close that she had nowhere to look except for at him. He held her gaze while he stood there and from his vantage point Jack could see three scratches that seemed to run the length of his face and he wasn't surprised by the flicker of pride that flared in his chest for his brave Toshiko.

"Well well," The master's voice was no longer deceptively jovial and was instead cold and sneering, "On your head be it."

With this statement he turned away from her and grabbed what looked like a microphone from the centre table and when he spoke again his voice was grossly magnifies and Jack new he was addressing the toglaphane outside the ship.

"My children! Today we fly above Japan! A proud country with a proud people!" Here he paused and shot a crazed look at Tosh who had gone completely stiff while all of the blood had seemingly drained from her face as she looked on in wide eyed terror. "Decimate them."

The last part of his speech came out as a whisper but for all of the silence in the room it could have been a gunshot. Jack vaguely noticed that the Jones family had been marched in at some point and they too stood in shock as they listened to the magnified screams that bounced off of the walls.

The Doctor sat with his head bowed into in his hands as he tried to deal with the awful onslaught of memories that their terrified screams brought back to him. As for Tosh her reaction to hearing the country below her scream in agony was nothing like what Jack would have expected from her, he would have expected her to fall apart, to cry, to sob, anything that showed what she was feeling.

However, when Jack found it within himself to look at her he was shocked. Tosh stood defiantly, straight backed and tall with a terrible fury illustrated in every line of her body. The Master walked over to her slowly as if savouring the moment,

"All gone. The whole of Japan, and who knows" he snarled suddenly, throwing a contemptuous look at Jack, "maybe Martha Jones was there. After all you never know, but you can always _hope._"

Jack saw the Jones family stiffen out of the corner of his eyes but did nothing to offer any empty comfort, after all Martha _could_ have been in Japan but right now he had to believe that she wasn't. he had to believe that she was far away and as safe as possible. "What shall we do with you, my little Toshiko?" Said the Master his voice having dropped to a sickening croon, "I could keep you I suppose, keep you with your precious freak," he continued standing in front of her so close that his face hovered only inches away from her own, "or I could kill you, and then find the rest of those degenerates that you call your team mates-" The Master never fully finished what he was going to say because Tosh, with both of her hands being held behind her back by guards did the only thing she could do; she levelled her most scornful look and spat at him. Jack knew the instant it happened that his brave Toshiko had just signed her own death sentence and the look on the Master's now sneering face only told him that he was right.

"Make her kneel." Came the short command aimed at the guards behind Tosh who each placed a hand on her shoulders and forced her to the floor. Jack sat horror struck at what he knew was inevitable.

"How considerate of you Toshiko, you seem to have made the decision for me." mocked the Master with a hint of steel to his voice.

Grabbing a hand gun from one of the guards he pointed it at her with an unwavering hand. He cocked his head to one side looked to all the world like an inquisitive child and with no warning he pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit Tosh on the right side of her chest, missing her heart by a metaphorical mile but piercing her lung.

She had minutes left to her and they would be filled with pain and suffering. Ignoring the protests of his guards Jack all but crawled the distance between them to reach Tosh just as she started to keel backwards.

Placing her between his legs with her back against his chest he attempted to staunch the blood that was staining through her shirt to no avail. He was so frantic in his actions that at first he didn't hear her speak.

"Jack." Her voice was so thin and weak that he could barely hear it, his only solace in the fact that if he could barely hear it then there was no way in hell that he bastard who shot her would here her final words; he wasn't worthy of hearing them.

"Jack," she repeated more insistent this time, "don't listen… not your fault."

Hearing these words almost destroyed him completely for he knew them to be untrue,

"Hey, don't speak like that. Save your breathe." Jack could hear his voice wavering as he spoke and as he raised his eyes around the room for any form of help he could find he only met two pairs of eye.

The Master's eyes watched the scene before him hungrily as he saw Jack falling apart at the seems. When Jack met the Doctor's eyes all he saw was anguish and a terrible suffering but somehow this only made things worse.

He felt inexplicable anger towards the man as held a dying friend in his arms. Torchwood. A dying member of _Torchwood_, a institute that the Doctor had disparaged and ridiculed so readily yet look what had happened, Torchwood had saved so many lives while the Doctor had been leading his fanciful life and look what had happened.

Jack was shook from his despairing thoughts when he heard another painful breath wrack Tosh's small frame as she dragged more air into her corrupted lungs as she prepared to ignore Jack's advice of saving her breathe; he wasn't surprised, it was crap advice anyway.

"If- when you see Owen, tell him I loved him," a small trickle of blood fell from the corner of Tosh's mouth, "and just thank you Jack. For everything." Jack watched on in horror as her body stopped trying to form words, stopped trying to breathe, stopped trying o live. Just stopped. All he could do was sit there as he cradled the limp form of a woman whom he loved like family.

This all stopped when he heard the Master's cold laugh seep through the room and suddenly as if he weren't in control of his body anymore, he felt himself launch himself from the floor and at the Master with the intent to kill him just to wipe that look off his face.

He felt his fist land one blow against the timelord's and an insignificant amount of satisfaction it brought to hear a definite snap of bone from under it. He intended to carry on until the so called "Master" was dead on the floor but just as he pulled back his other hand to hit him he heard three gunshots go off.

As if he were already dead himself he felt the pain of the bullets in his side dull in comparison of the pain within his heart.

As his consciousness ebbed away from him he hoped that the oblivion was just as cold and unfeeling as he felt it to be every other time he died. Just this once he would like to stay dead, even if only for a little while, because at the moment it had to be a damn sight better than whatever it was passed for his life.

….

A/N- Thanks for reading, I'm going to continue this fic in the obvious direction and reviews would really help, especially since it's the first chapter. Technically I think this should be a crossover but it's more torchwood than Doctor who and the cross over's don't get read as much, anyway thanks again and Merry Christmas-V


	2. Gwen Cooper

It had been a fortnight since Jack had been hauled up to the deck and forced to watch Toshiko die and listen to countless others scream in agony as they burnt. Two weeks but yet again the passage of time had come to mean very little on board the Valiant.

He had seen no more of the Master since he was shot whilst he lunged for the man's face, he knew not what had happened to Tosh's body and he knew nothing of the Doctor and Jones family.

And he didn't care.

He was almost selfishly glad that no one had talked to him for the entirety of the two weeks since he had found himself dumped back in his cell and chained once more to the wall. He could barely force himself to move and so most of the day he didn't. He sat against the wall in his dank cell with his head bowed as he remembered.

The memories flew unbidden into his mind and he hadn't the energy to push them away. He remembered first seeing Tosh as a broken woman. At first when he saw her he truly doubted as to whether she would be of any use to him. The woman was a wreck! Her time with UNIT had not been kind to her and it showed in the way she spoke, her voice was husky and cracked from disuse as she tried to accustom to being able to speak to someone again.

His reservations about her had come to a peak when he told her of the sonic equipment that she had managed to construct from flawed plans and he was almost sure that while she may have been in possession of prestigious skill her time in confinement had broken her.

Then he offered her a way out.

It was almost like watching a spark of life return to her eyes; some might call it survivor's instinct. From that one look he knew that she would not only be useful but she could be one hell of an operative if given half the chance. It took her while to adapt to her new freedom but she took it in her stride as much as she could have.

Jack had watched literally blossom as her own person and he would be the first one to admit that he felt pride in watching her work for a better world all the while knowing that she could do all of this because he had seen a strength in her which none of her team mates knew she had.

He knew about her feelings for Owen, how could he not? It became a secret within the Hub that everybody knew but nobody talked about; an unspoken rule. He really thought that they could be good together if Owen could've taken his head out of his own arse for five minutes, but alas, no. Now all of that potential was gone, he had watched it bleed away along with her lifeblood and all he could feel was the utter anguish of his own heart.

~o~o~o~

The day that Jack heard the foreboding sound of scraping metal as his cell door was pushed open he felt his heart rate quicken as he sent up a silent prayer to a god he had never believed in for this visit to be just for the Master to kill him.

He would come back but unfortunately the same could not be said for those he cared about.

When his eyes first alighted upon the Master Jack felt the tiniest quirk of his lips as he registered the barely noticeable shadow on his face which had undoubtedly been when Jack had broken his nose from their last encounter.

At the Master's silent instruction two guards walked forward, undid the chains that shackled him to the wall and seized him under his arms.

Jack thrashed and flailed as they tried to remove him from his cell wile the Timelord watched on in amusement. Eventually the Master seemed to grow bored of the episode in front of him as with a flick of his hand and a renewed hardness in his eye one of the guards drew a sidearm and shot Jack in the temple. With their now dead captive the two guards hauled him up to the deck while the Master walked on unencumbered a pace ahead with the slightest of springs in his step.

~o~o~o~

With a gasp that sent oxygen into the depths of his lungs Jack was dragged back into life. It took him a fraction of an instant to know that he was on the polished wooden floor of the main deck once more.

It could only mean one thing.

Slowly and painfully he dragged himself into a sitting position and raised his head. He had obviously been thrown to the floor next to some sort of object. As he looked up he saw it was the now familiar shape of the Doctor's wheelchair.

The man who was sitting in it said not a word to Jack but seemed to be surveying him with the deepest sorrow Jack had ever seen in the face of another person. He looked away as he felt the bile begin to rise in his throat.

He wasn't sure if it was because residual anger he felt for the man, the wrongness of seeing him so helpless, the resentment he felt as the Doctor levelled his pity filled gaze at him or the simple gut wrenching fear of what was to come.

He tore his gaze away from him and with great trepidation turned his head to look at the rest of the room. His eyes alighted on the Master who was sitting in a swivel chair at the head of the conference table idly swinging in lazy circles and not for the first time Jack felt the almost uncontrollable urge to attack the man just for the gratification of seeing him bleed.

As the Master swung in his chair once more he caught sight of Jack. With a sickening enthusiasm he leapt out of his chair before collecting himself and starting a demure walk over to where Jack lay.

"Captain! What a surprise! Well, actually," The Master paused and donned a thoughtful expression, "it's not really a surprise but I hardly think that matters now."

Jack could couldn't tear his disgusted gaze away from the monster in front of him. The fact The Master's sense of excitement was almost palpable in the air only serving to worry him more over the next stage in the "little game" the Master had insisted they play.

"What, no hello?" The last sentence was accompanied by a not so gentle kick to the gut. Swallowing what little dignity he had left Jack forced what he remembered to be a smile back onto his face. It wasn't so much a smile as much as Jack bearing his teeth but it seemed to have the desire effect and no further blow was delivered.

The Master walked away from Jack talking all the while but Jack was in no state to notice. He could see from the smile on his face, the light in eyes and the spring in his step that something big was about to happen but at the moment it was literally all he could do to try and stop himself from retching as he contemplated what this big event could be.

He was soon drawn out of his reverie by the terrible voice of the Timelord a lot closer than he thought he had been "Well really captain, if I didn't know better I'd say you weren't really listening," he said as his voice turned hard and lethal, "good thing I know how to catch your attention."

With a jerk of his head at the guards the door at the other end of the room slid open silently. Through it walked two familiar and stoic soldiers of the Master, both with their eyes fixed straight ahead and between them they dragged a third person though obviously not a soldier. With a mocking look at Jack the Master sauntered over to stand before the shaking figure. With a deceptively kind smile he slowly lifted the bag off of the unknown person's head to reveal Gwen Cooper.

~o~o~o~

As a leader Jack was always proud to think that he took the time to understand the members of his team, that he took the time to know them. He prided himself on this fact and yet as he once more looked at Gwen Cooper he found himself unable to say he knew her any more.

He didn't want to admit it but it had taken him more than an instant to recognize the woman in front of him. Her face bore lines he had never seen upon her before; they didn't look like wrinkles or stress lines, they looked like permanent fissures set in stone. Her skin once white, smooth and clear was now discoloured from bruises or rough from calluses.

And her eyes. They were neither warm and deep like when he had first known her nor were they full of fire and defiance like Tosh's had been when she had met with her end.

Gwen's were empty.

It was almost like something had fractured within her making her seem so small and pitiful as she stood there shaking before the insane time lord.

She didn't look up to see the Master and this seemed to serve only to amuse him. Placing a gentle finger under her chin he turned her face upward and only smiling when she jerked back to avoid his touch.

"Don't be afraid," the Master with anticipation lacing his every word, "look, I brought you a present!" With one hand still under her chin he turned Gwen's head in Jack's direction.

Jack could have pinpointed the exact moment that Gwen realised that it was he who sat before her. Her wide eyes filled with tears at the sight of him and her trembling grew more pronounced.

She moved so quickly that neither guard beside her had time to react and in the blink of an eye she was crouched down beside Jack with her hands balled into the filthy material of his shirt as she stared into his eyes. The guards realising their blunder made to reclaim her but were stopped by a vague hand gesture by the Master who was watching in a state of distant anticipation.

The room was silent.

Jack couldn't bring himself to look away from Gwen's eyes despite the fact that all he wanted to do was face away from shame. Everyone in the room watched the two, even the Doctor though his eyes gave away what he knew to be inevitable.

"You left us."

Her voice had less force behind it than a floating summer's breeze but for the blow it struck to Jack she could have screamed it.

"Yes."

It sounded uncaring to even him but Gwen's disposition didn't shift. He had so many things he wanted to ask her but he wasn't sure how much either of them could take. In the end he decided to start with asking about her, "Where did he catch you?"

"We were at the border," said Gwen softly as her accent lilted her words, "The guards saw us and tried to catch us but were too quick, well some of us were."

Seeing the confusion edge onto Jack's face she answered before the question could be asked.

"They shot at us. The guards. They got Rhys."

Jack made a move as if to try and touch her; to offer any form of human contact and comfort but Gwen moved away from him as if scalded. Releasing his shirt she skittered away from him but continued speaking her words beginning to soften and melt together as they came in a torrent, "I went back for him but it was too late, already dead." She paused only for a shuddering breath, "They got me then, I couldn't leave him."

"She put up quite the fight, from what I hear."

Jack looked up at the Master with revulsion on his face for although the mans' words were sombre there was a barely concealed note of glee in his voice.

"Last thing I saw were the others driving running," Carried on Gwen as though she had not been interrupted, "Well not really 'others' any more is it, just Owen and Ianto."

Gwen's words washed over Jack as he realised the truth in them; just Owen and Ianto left. It didn't bear thinking about.

The Master fixed Jack with a steely glare before drawing one of the guards sidearm's from his pocket. Completely ignoring Jack he knelt directly in front of Gwen so that his face was only inches from her own. He spoke so softly that Jack couldn't hear him over the contending sound of his heart beat hammering loudly against his chest but he drew back from her leaving her with wide and worryingly vacant eyes.

Reaching out with his hand the Master offered Gwen the gun. She took it readily.

"This is all your fault," she whispered her wide eyes filling with tears, "Rhys and Tosh gone. Owen and Ianto being hunted. It's all 'cause of you." Slowly but with a surprisingly steady hand Gwen brought the gun up so it was trained at Jack.

Jack had never been killed intentionally by a friend before, but he couldn't imagine it could hurt anymore than it already did.

"It's all your fault, you had to leave us and go running off!" Her voice had risen to a shout but the gun never wavered from Jack.

"See Doctor, I told you she would be better than the last one!" The Master's stage whisper carried across the barren silence. Gwen's head jerked slightly to one side at his voice but carried on as she had before.

"If you'd have just stayed Rhys would be here. But you didn't," she said with her voice hardening, "and he's not."

Jack was beyond frozen at this point but through it all he managed to choke out a few words " Gwen, I am _so_ sorr-"

"Save it!" Gwen's words came out as a hiss, moving her gaze slightly she addressed the Doctor, "So you're Jacks' Doctor are you?"

The Doctor made no sound as he inclined his head with his lips pressed into a firm line and eyes downcast.

"Well then," she said as her lips pulled up into a mirthless half smile and she looked at Jack once more, "lets see if you can fix this."

Jack barely had time to register what was happening as with a quick movement and no hesitation Gwen moved the barrel of the gun up to her own head and squeezed the trigger.

Jack sat there and watched in horror as her body fell limply to floor and the sound of the gun shot ricocheted.

The Master waited until he had silence to speak,

"Two down, two to go."

….

A/N- ok so I'm sorry for the wait but in return this is a fairly long chapter so you know… swings and roundabouts. Reviews would really brighten my day as I am literally about this close ( ) to having a full stress meltdown, and who knows, it might make the next chapter faster! All my best- VE


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